I was summoned to break a curse

“Come on, Zora, get up, it is already morning!”

I heard cheerful chirping in the morning, but it wasn’t a wild bird, it was a small black chicken hopping around me, on my bed. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. It was really morning, alright, the sun was already shining through the window straight into my room.

I sat in my bed. And yawned.

“Quick, breakfast first, and then we will do our study session as you promised,” chirped Korvan.

“You prepared breakfast?” I asked.

“Of course,” he puffed his chest. “Would you also like some eggs or milk?”

“Are you gonna steal them from the village?” I asked.

“Ha-ha, sharp right from the morning, I see,” he laughed.

Usually, if you were taking care of a zmok, he would bring you whatever you wanted. But the thing is, he was unable to summon those things out of the thin air, so that meant what you received, someone else has lost. That is why I did not ask Korvan for anything, because I was not sure of the consequences. And in the old folk tales, people who had zmok usually received bad luck along with its services.

“I do not want them,” I said.

“Are you sure?” he asked. “Behind the castle, there is a barn, where all of our livestock is. We have a cow and chickens, you know.”

I perked up.

“I wasn’t outside of castle much,” I said.

Zmok went silent. “No need to go there,” he beeped after a while.

“Why not? I would like to see.”

“Sure, go ahead,” I heard a snarky voice. “And then we will find out what kind of animal is close to you.”

“What?” I asked, confused.

The black cat was now back, her head peeping out of the open door. It was only the second time I’d seen the cat since arriving here, but she sure seemed a lot more arrogant than Korvan.

“What do you mean?”

“He did not tell you yet? About the curse?” the black cat asked.

“What curse. About the dragon?”

“Not about the dragon. About his bride.”

“Bride,” I repeated. “I thought I was just to be sent here to be eaten and keep the village safe.”

“That’s what those people think,” snapped the cat. “Your real task here is to break the dragon's curse.”

“Ah,” I said.

I thought that in this castle lives a dragon, who is evil and harms people. After meeting him at the rooftop of the tower yesterday during the night, I kinda understood that he has his human form, too. I took him for a dragon, being able to transform into a human. But getting back to the fairytales I read as a child, there were not many supernatural creatures who could take a human form. Instead, in old stories, the more often occurrence was that it was a cursed person, who had to take the form of a monster. Princes were cursed to appear as monsters until they find true love. The beautiful maidens were cursed by jealous witches and turned into animals, until brave young men were able to break the spell. Sometimes, even siblings were both cursed to take the form of something else.

“So the dragon is, in fact, human.”

“That’s right. And although villagers think they need to send offerings so he won't punish them, the role of a sacrificial bride was always the same. To break a curse.”

“But how?”

“That nobody knows,” the cat said.

“Okay, I get that,” I said. “But what was that about animals close to me? You kinda lost me there.”

“You cannot leave the castle,” Korvan said. “If you do, you will be turned into an animal and will be cursed along with the dragon, until another bride comes to break your curse, too.”

“Excuse me? And you are telling me this now?”

Forget about telling me, that smart-ass dragon was asking me yesterday why I did not run away. Is it just my pure luck, or better to say, lack of survivability skills, that I decided not to ditch the castle and run through the woods or climb that mountain? So you are telling me now, if I attempted to do it, I would end up like a black chicken or cat or whatever suits the curse’s fancy?

“Wait a minute,” I said and turned to the black cat. “You are a sacrificial bride, too. Huh?”

The cat was glaring at me, not saying anything.

“You failed, you were turned into a cat, and now you are acting all high and mighty?”

She turned and left the room.

“That little…”

I got up from the bed, full of energy. Due to that interaction, my pressure went up immediately. No need for coffee. Not like there would be any in this world, anyway…

I looked at Korvan. “Is that true? That I cannot leave the castle?”

“Yes,” he said. “But the truth is, we also do not know much. We never heard the original curse, so we do not know how it works.”

“How many brides failed before?”

“Only two,” Korvan said. “You are the third bride the villagers sent here.”

“What about the first one?”

“We do not talk about her,” Korvan said. “And I recommend you to do the same.”

“I see. Something happened. ”

“We don’t talk! Let's learn to read, instead!”

I took a blanket and threw it over a jumpy black chicken.

“Wench! What was that for?”

“I am going to change, thank you,” I said. “Feel free to sleep for a while, I bet you spent the whole night running around and stealing papers and books for our first study session.”

He went silent.

I went to the small wooden washstand. Korvan brought it for me from the other room. I poured the water from the ceramic pitcher standing on it into the basin and then splashed myself. The water was extremely cold, and that put out my anger. Once I was washed and dressed, I slowly took off the blanket only to see Korvan sleeping soundly. I covered him back and went to the kitchen.

My breakfasts in this world were pretty simple. Oatmeal in a sweet or salty version. For sweetness, a few pieces of fruit or honey were added. For saltines, usually some kind of cheese, egg, or dried meat. If I wanted fresh bread, I was able to have it. I thought the food here would be horrible. To be honest, the condiments in this world were almost non-existent, which meant food must be tasteless, but I was able to manage. At least I was happy I had something to eat rather than to starve.

I washed my dishes and put them on the stove to dry. I heard a rustle, so I turned around. Korvan has probably woken up.

“You finally up, Korvan?”

But when I looked at the source of the sound, I stopped. There, in the corner of the kitchen, was a small brown weasel with the white star on her chest. It had a small head with black eyes and tiny, rounded ears. It was adorable.

“Hello,” I said. “Are you living in this castle? Can you talk, too?”

The weasel shook its head.

“Are you hungry?”

Now it's nodded.

I took some milk and put it into a small plate. From the bread, I tore off some small pieces and put them into milk. I lowered it to the floor and waited. The smart weasel looked at me for a while and then decided I was not meaning any harm. While it was eating, I was wondering if milk was the correct food to give such an animal, but considering the fact that this thing understood what I was saying, it was probably some other supernatural creature. So the human food should work for them, too.

If I remembered correctly, there were some gnomes or imps living in old houses, but there were only a few animals. One was a snake and the second was a weasel. Although the snake was supposed to live beneath the threshold of the main entry doors to protect its inhabitants from misfortune, the weasel usually lived in barns to protect the animals.

“Do you live in the barn?”

Another nod.

“Did you come here for food?”

Now it shook its head.

“Hmm, you cannot talk, so it will be hard for me to understand you. What do you need? Can you show me?”

The weasel came close to me and then bit my skirt. It started pulling me to the side. I crouched to see where it was pulling me and found a small wooden box lying on the floor. The weasel nudged it straight into my hand. I took it and opened it.

It was… empty.

There was a small dimple in the soft material inside, telling me that something was there just until recently.

“We are searching for the thing from the box.” I guessed.

The weasel nodded.

But… where to start searching, I wondered. The castle itself was huge, and I did not even know what I was looking for. If it were something small, I would need the luck of the whole world to find it fallen somewhere. And what if it was outside of castle? The weasel was not even able to talk. How should I confirm what I am looking for? I would need a miracle.

Wait a minute…

I was now in a world that was full of old magic and supernatural creatures. Wouldn’t it be possible if a miracle happened? I remembered there were a lot of old spells people from the past used to find a lost item. Maybe I did not need to know what I was looking for.

“Can I have this box, please?” I asked.

The weasel nodded.

I took the small box carved from wood and put it into a pocket in my apron. I let the weasel climb up my hand to my shoulder, and I dashed out of the kitchen.

“Whoa, what is that! Where are you running?”

It was Korvan. He probably woke up and was looking for me.

“Into the tower,” I shouted.

Korvan flapped his wings a few times and was now occupying my free shoulder, staring at the weasel.

“Why to the tower?” he asked.

“I saw a lot of trinkets there. I am looking for something.”

“For what?”

“I will tell you once I am there.”

We went up to the tower and opened the door. The study was empty, but I went straight to the bookshelves, where you could see a lot of ancient stuff.

“Listen, I am looking for a small silver coin. On it, there should be a portrait of a saint.”

All three of us started rummaging through the things. There were a lot of silver coins there, but I did not see any with the portrait of the old saint. While they were still looking, I took out a straight candle and matches.

“Is this it?” Korvan asked.

I looked at the coin he showed me, and I smiled. “Yes, this is exactly it!”

“What is that used for?”

“People believe that Saint Anthony is the patron of lost things. It has been ages since I prayed to someone, but we can try it.”

I took all the things and my companions back to my chamber. I put the candle on the task and lit it with matches. I was now holding the coin with both of my hands, and I closed my eyes.

Dear Saint Anthony, help me find what we have lost, I echoed in my mind. Let what was lost be found, and return to where it once was.

I opened my eyes after a short prayer.

“Is it done now?” Korvan asked, intrigued.

“Not yet,” I replied.

I took off my shoes and turned them backward. Then I put into them the silver coin and the empty wooden box from a weasel. I put the shoes under my bed and sat on the mattress, waiting.

“Now it is done,” I confirmed.

“And now what?” Korvan asked.

He was now on the floor, peeking at the shoes. The weasel was also interested.

“To be honest, I am not sure. Usually, you would just go to sleep and hope that in the morning the lost item will be found, but… Do we even have the luxury to wait? It looked like it was an urgent matter.”

“It is always fascinating when humans do magic,” Korvan said. “You just do the randomest things in the world without any logic, and somehow it still works.”

I laughed.

“Well, this will be the first time you will see the spell fail,” I said.

I took the shoes back up and hid the wooden box and silver coin in my apron pocket. I put my shoes back on.

“I am afraid we will have to find this lost thing in a good old-fashioned searching– Oh my god!”

“What?” Korvan asked.

I felt a soft tingling on my feet. And then some invisible power forced me to get up.

“What is happening?” Korvan asked. “Where are we going? Did you find out where the lost item is?”

“I did not,” I shook my head. “But it looks like my shoes did.”

I just finished my sentence when the shoes dashed out of my room – with me in them, of course. Suddenly, I was running straight to the hallway.

“After her! Quickly!” I could hear Korvan yelling.

I looked behind me and could see the zmok and weasel running through the hallway, only a few steps behind me.

I had no idea what my shoes wanted. But I could see where we were going.

“You want me to come outside?” I asked my shoes.

They did not reply, just dashed through another hallway.

“Oh no! I cannot go,” I said. “If I do so, I will turn into an animal and will be unable to help anybody!”

We were now running straight to the main entryway.

“No, no, no!” I screamed. “Stop! Stop, please!”

No one was listening. After all, shoes do not have any ears, do they?

The doors opened by themselves, as if they were inviting me to go outside to spend a wonderful summer day in the garden. After I saw this invitation, I was mortified.

Now, only a few steps were remaining. Five, four…

“Korvan, make it stop!” I yelled.

Three. Two…

“I don’t know how!”

One.

I tripped over the threshold and fell straight out of the doorway. I hit my back and I rolled across the stone path to the grass next to it. The fall knocked the wind out of me, and I couldn’t breathe.

“Oh, no…”